"Beauty and the Beast" is a story about the importance of inner beauty of a person more than the beauty of one’s appearance or face. The moral of the story is that a person’s beauty comes from his/her heart and thus the protagonist of the tale, Beauty recognizes the inner beauty of the Beast and his appearance doesn’t matter to her anymore. She falls in love with him and therefore, he turns into a charming prince. Their true love won over Beast’s appearance and turned him into a prince.

A king had lavished all his luxuries on his son, who was fondly called ‘Prince Darling’. He was concerned about his son and thus asked his friend, the fairy of truth to turn his son into a good man but she tells him that she can’t change a man’s nature but can make him do good. The king died and Prince Darling now became the king. The fairy of truth gave him a ring that would prick him every time he went astray. The Prince Darling was doing good under his mentor Suleiman’s guidance. But, his sycophants manipulated him. He removed the ring from his finger as it was constantly pricking him. He imprisoned the shepherdess who had turned down his proposal of marriage. When she mysteriously vanished from jail, he imprisoned Suleiman as his sycophants said he wanted to take over throne and become the new king and he had vanished shepherdess.

Seeing his deeds, the fairy of truth turned the Prince Darling into a hideous monster and tells him that his soul is much more hideous than his appearance. A hunter captures the monster and decides to present him to king Suleiman as present on his coronation. Suleiman declares that he believes that the Prince Darling is not dead and he will surely return one day. He is taking throne only in his absence.

The prince (kept in a cage as monster) now realized Suleiman was a nice man and his friends had actually manipulated him. He began doing good deeds and the fairy of truth began rewarding him for his deeds. Eventually, he won the heart of the shepherdess and asked for forgiveness. The fairy of truth turned into back into Prince Darling and told him that the shepherdess always loved him and hated his bad behavior. The tale ends with a happy ending.

“Beauty and the Beast” and Other Tales Questions and Answers

Study Guide for “Beauty and the Beast” and Other Tales

"Beauty and the Beast" and Other Tales study guide contains a biography of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Essays for “Beauty and the Beast” and Other Tales

"Beauty and the Beast" and Other Tales essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of "Beauty and the Beast" and Other Tales by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont.